Emeritus at Green Mountain

A-​Ok does not cut it, so I’ve settled for 2 stars. The grounds look nice, and they try to offer services which balance independence and the necessity to go out and get appointments done or to do other things outside their facility. Their website makes them seem like they care about your family member. I think they probably do, but they dropped the ball a lot in medical care, so I wanted other families to know what to look out for here, based on our experience.
One of my relatives stayed here over night, and it was too long. To get him admitted here, the process didn’t take as long as you’d think, with a stack of forms to fill out and initial. Casey (admitting person) is pleasant and nice to work with. We filled out more forms with a nurse, and I had to remind her that my relative was of sound mind, so she could talk to him and ask him questions. After the forms were filled out, we went to his room, which he shared with another patient.
He pulled the call light for someone to get him a gown to change into, and to help him get from his wheelchair to his bed. I stayed for about 5 minutes and started unpacking his stuff. Then I went to my car to go home. When I was in my car, I realized that I forgot something and went back to his room. I’d say that it was 5 – 10 minutes of time for that. Not only was his call light not answered, there were no employees in sight and I wasn’t about to go poking my head into various rooms. I don’t know how long it took for them to answer the call light.
My relative had a picc line, which is a longer term IV. The nurse who came to administer his medications didn’t know how to do it. I am glad that she asked for help, but from what I understand, IV lines are nursing 101. One of the doctors admitted that the staff not being skilled or up to date on training happens often. Not good. At some point before I arrived the next morning, someone had done something medically with my relative, such as checking blood sugar or something of that nature. When he got out of bed, there were still caps from the medical devices (like needle caps) still in bed with him.
He also told me that during the morning, he had to have help walking to the restroom, since he was considered a fall risk. They got him to the restroom, but after he pulled the cord in the restroom to get help back, they never came. We don’t know if the cord was faulty, or if the staff was too busy. He ended up going back to bed on his own. When he was ready to be discharged, the nurse was wishy-​washy about whether she was going to do some last-​minute checks on him. She did do a check of something, then didn’t tell us that we were done and okay to leave. We ended up sitting there for a bit until we decided to walk out.
Lastly, he was discharged after only one night of being there. The staff was supposed to help set up in-​home services and set up appointments for follow-​ups with his usual doctors. They didn’t call anyone, which we found out when we called to verify appointments. If they can’t or don’t want to do something, then they shouldn’t promise it. We brought up our concerns with the nursing manager and also with the social worker, who seemed genuinely concerned. I just hope they are able to take care of these issues, so a patient who is demented or «not all there» doesn’t need to have an advocate come knocking every few days to make sure they are receiving adequate care.